Rare arcade games you've seen

[retrorussell]

Saw a very craptastic fighter called "Tao Taido" once. One of those distributed by "Mc 'O River". The creators later had the good sense to poke fun at it in a later game (Aero Fighters 2, I think).

[[d2f]Iggy*SJB]

Very cool topic

 

Back in the day....

 

Lunar Lander

 

I own one of those. It's in pretty good condition, but needs a potentiometer(nonstandard, of course)....and the coin door repaired. Otherwise, fully functional.

 

A few I remember:

 

Zookeeper

Thief(or Stop Theif, can't remember)

[retrorussell]

Very cool topic

 

Back in the day....

 

Lunar Lander

 

I own one of those. It's in pretty good condition, but needs a potentiometer(nonstandard, of course)....and the coin door repaired. Otherwise, fully functional.

 

A few I remember:

 

Zookeeper

Thief(or Stop Theif, can't remember)

Thief was the name of the Pac-Man clone where you drive a getaway car, running over dollar bills whilst pursued by the coppers.

Stop Thief! was a cool board game by Parker Brothers in the late '70s, where you used a handheld electronic device that made noises that clued you into where the thief was on the gameboard. Audio clues included breaking glass, footsteps, opening doors, etc. When you think you've caught him you make an arrest for that location. After pressing the "arrest" button you'll hear sirens wail, then tones to indicate A) he wasn't there, B) you caught him, or C) you found him, but he got away.

[[d2f]Iggy*SJB]

That's it!! It had a cassette tape that was constantly saying funny shit.... "Dispatch, blah blah blah..."

 

I can't remember any of the sayings, but I will never forget that "Dispatch", cuz it always sounded urgent.

[atarian63]

Don't know if it was rare but got to play Death Race.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7541

I used to go to the arcade when I was 6 or 7. The op was a old man by the name of "Cotton".

I only got to play it a few times. I wasn't my favorite game. I liked Stunt Cycle and a projection game where you flew a bi-plane and shot at other planes. BTW Does anyone know what the name of that game was?

 

They now have a rebuilt Death Race at Funspot in Laconia, NH. Check it out.

 

That would be really great to play again! What nice shape!

[retrorussell]

That's it!! It had a cassette tape that was constantly saying funny shit.... "Dispatch, blah blah blah..."

 

I can't remember any of the sayings, but I will never forget that "Dispatch", cuz it always sounded urgent.

Some of the dialogue:

Any units in the vicinity of Hollywood and Vine, 504 in progress.

See the man at Dohini and Sunset.

All units, use caution.

Officer in trouble, man down, code 3.

Suspect may be armed and dangerous.

All units proceed to Elm and Main.

Dispatch, this is car 2 in hot pursuit of sedan, request assistance!

What is your location, car 2?

Now proceeding south at Capitol and Spring!

This is car 2, the thief has doubled back and he's coming right at us!

 

Other dialogue directed at the player:

 

Can't you play any better than that??

Pretty good playing!!

 

This is an 8-plus minute tape loop. I've heard this was actual policeband dialogue!

If you want to hear the whole thing it's available for download, just search for Mame sample Thief and you should be able to track it down.

[Joeyray]

Played the Death Race a few weeks back at Funspot! The left steering wheel needed some work but it was still a "blast from the past". I never even dreamed that i would ever have a chance to play that game again!

[darthkur]

Here are the games I found at the HersheyPark arcade (over by the Kissing Tower area of the park):

 

Q*bert's Qubes

Galaga

Pole Position x3 (two cabinet and one cockpit)

The Safe

BerZerk

Millipede

Monaco GP

Operation Wolf

 

All these games were out of service

Ms. Pac-Man x2

Dig Dug

Mr. Do!

Joust

 

I also found two of my favorite pinball machines Comet and Cyclone (out of service).

 

Very disappointing to say the least that a lot of these machines are out of service and need repaired.

 

 

I take it they no longer have the "huge mechanical shooting gallery with the realistic light gun rifles and the two mechanical life sized cowboys that you could duel with" that I mentioned before. I guess that mechanical devices like that would be hard pressed to be still in operation after 30+ years.

I remember the "Kissing Tower". The tall cylinder that had a ring shaped device with Hershey Kisses shaped protruding windows all around it. That ride was brand new on either the 2nd or 3rd visit for me back then. Which turns out to be 1975. I just looked it up. Wow. That really was a while ago.

 

http://www.hersheypark.com/rides/detail.ph...;Submit2=Search

[retrorussell]

I think I had seen a cocktail of Nintendo's Space Fever at Big Tomato Pizza in 1980 or so in Portland. It was released a year earlier but I remember Missile Command and Pac-Man being there at the time too so it must have been AT LEAST 1980. Not too memorable (yet another shameless Space Invader ripoff) but there were 3 different choices of gameplay.

 

I may have seen Irem's Andromeda at Pioneer Pizza at the Tigard/Beaverton border back in the early 80s, where many a gradeschool basketball team would partake of passable pizza and KILLER potato wedges.

[jrok]

"Time Traveler." I'm not sure how rare it actually was, but I only remember encountering it in a handful of locations during the summer of 1991, and then never again after that. That summer might have been the last gasp of the Laserdisc games. I don't think there were ever any conversion kits for the cabinet/mirror setup either.

[Tempest]

"Time Traveler." I'm not sure how rare it actually was, but I only remember encountering it in a handful of locations during the summer of 1991, and then never again after that. That summer might have been the last gasp of the Laserdisc games. I don't think there were ever any conversion kits for the cabinet/mirror setup either.

I saw a few of those when they came out, but then they were gone once the novelty wore off (it was a bad game really). I think they still have one at Marvelous Marvin's Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills Michigan. At least they did a few years ago when I was last there.

 

Tenoest

[jrok]

I saw a few of those when they came out, but then they were gone once the novelty wore off (it was a bad game really)...

 

Yeah. It wasn't so much a game as it was a tech demo/ attraction. However, I do remember that the designers attempted to build in a few game-like elements that distinguished it from the Dragon's Lair Me-Too crowd. It was a failure, but it was an interesting failure.

[Tempest]

I saw a few of those when they came out, but then they were gone once the novelty wore off (it was a bad game really)...

 

Yeah. It wasn't so much a game as it was a tech demo/ attraction. However, I do remember that the designers attempted to build in a few game-like elements that distinguished it from the Dragon's Lair Me-Too crowd. It was a failure, but it was an interesting failure.

Well I remember pumping more than a few quarters into at the time. I don't remember if I ever beat it or not. I got close, I know that. I never liked the 'repeated actions' that you had to do like shoot a guy 4 or 5 times while the footage looped over and over. It wasn't intuitive and the looping footage looked bad.

 

Tempest

[jrok]

I saw a few of those when they came out, but then they were gone once the novelty wore off (it was a bad game really)...

 

Yeah. It wasn't so much a game as it was a tech demo/ attraction. However, I do remember that the designers attempted to build in a few game-like elements that distinguished it from the Dragon's Lair Me-Too crowd. It was a failure, but it was an interesting failure.

Well I remember pumping more than a few quarters into at the time. I don't remember if I ever beat it or not. I got close, I know that. I never liked the 'repeated actions' that you had to do like shoot a guy 4 or 5 times while the footage looped over and over. It wasn't intuitive and the looping footage looked bad.

 

Tempest

 

Agreed. The LD medium's limitations were on full display whenever they attempted something like "seamlessness". It was a neat looking special effect in search of actual gameplay. If I ever hit the Lotto for gadzooks money, one mad scientist hobbyish thing I might try is to aquire one of those cabs and attempt a homebrew conversion of some sort. The "Time traveling cowboy" concept might have helped it pass marketing-muster, but something a little more abstract might have helped to make for a better game. I wonder if anyone has ever attempted such a thing?

[Baloo]

Dance Dance Revolution Disney's Rave in Disneyworld

 

Star Wars Arcade (Not Star Wars Trilogy) Also in Disneyworld, or it might've been Disneyland, one of the two.

[retrorussell]

I remember a couple Konami/Stern games that were both rare and not particularly great.

Jungler, a game with snakes that shoot each other in a non-jungle setting, and

Rescue, a sort of Choplifter game with dual joysticks, and taking place over the ocean.

[jeff.grosso'77]

I need help with this. It was a pre-1990 coin-op video-game (arcade) I am trying to find someone who can tell me the name of this because this game was really bizarre and quite out-of-the-box. I hope the few memories of it that I have help; I don't remember seeing much past the 1st stage. This game was a side-scroller where one controlled a character who was a boy who looked a tad macrocephalous and the scenery of the level was also very much weird, like in a part there were big cylindrical red bumpers above and below and jumping you could hit them and make them change their position.

 

BUT THE MOST SALIENT FEATURE OF THIS GAME WAS THIS, a little while after the beginning the character can pick up a power-up that looks like a tab the size of a hotcake and when he gets it and drops it, a window pops showing a close-up of him giving a kiss to a girl.

 

I've seen this game only one time, it was in '90 and never again since then.

 

Any help with this will be greatly appreciated.

Edited July 31, 2009 by jeff.grosso'77

[chris_lynx1989]

"Time Traveler." I'm not sure how rare it actually was, but I only remember encountering it in a handful of locations during the summer of 1991, and then never again after that. That summer might have been the last gasp of the Laserdisc games. I don't think there were ever any conversion kits for the cabinet/mirror setup either.

You're talking about the Sega Holoseum 3-D arcade units,are you not?They did 2 games in this cabinet.

[Flack]

Here are some of the rarer games I remember seeing from my youth. My definition of rare is, "this is the only place I ever saw them."

 

Cliff Hanger (Malibu Grand Prix)

Death Race (Auction, 2005)

Discs of Tron Environmental (Photon)

Kick (not Kick-Man)(Drive-In Movies)

Krull - Bally Le Mans (Crossroads Mall)

Lunar Lander (Neighbor's House)

Mach 3 (Bowling Alley)

New York, New York cocktail (Movie Theater)

Road Runner - Bally Le Mans (Crossroads Mall)

Star Wars Arcade (Las Vegas)

Thayer's Quest (Gold Mine, Penn Square Mall)

Time Traveler (Gold Mine, Penn Square Mall)

 

A saw Death Race at an auction a few years back. Bidding did not meet the reserve of $600. I also saw a non-working Time Traveler machine at auction and they couldn't get $25 for it.

 

Probably the rarest game I've played is Galaxian 3, the six-player environmental shooting game. Bally/Le Mans had one here in OKC for years. One projector was always dimmer than the other(s). This game is also available as a PSX import, I believe.

 

It's odd how "rare" is based on people's age and location. Some of the games in this thread I would list as common. I had a Make Trax (sold it earlier this year) and I know two people who own Mappy cabinets. Last time I checked, Revolution X was still playable up at Cactus Jack's Arcade.

[retrorussell]

I remember Gypsy Juggler (Malibu Gran Prix) and Kram (Wunderland), and a weird game called "Munch Mobile" (Wunderland). None of which were all that great.

 

In case you haven't come across this, Flack.. you might like this nostalgic video.

[Tempest]

and a weird game called "Munch Mobile"

Munch Mobile was actually released for the TI-99/4a. You're right though, it wasn't a very good game.

 

Tempest

[Waterborn]

Check out my blog for some footage of Mystic Marathon (taken off of youtube). I played this game in one of my favorite arcades in the Orlando Mall back in the 80's and have been trying to track down the name ever since. I picked it up after hearing Eugene Jarvis (Co-creator of Robotron) mention in an interview that I also picked up off of youtube. Does anyone know of someone in NE who currently has a working copy of this game? According to Jarvis, very few were ever released into the public.

[Dynosaur]

Don't know if it was rare but got to play Death Race.

http://www.klov.com/...hp?game_id=7541

I used to go to the arcade when I was 6 or 7. The op was a old man by the name of "Cotton".

I only got to play it a few times. I wasn't my favorite game. I liked Stunt Cycle and a projection game where you flew a bi-plane and shot at other planes. BTW Does anyone know what the name of that game was?

 

They now have a rebuilt Death Race at Funspot in Laconia, NH. Check it out.

 

 

That's interesting - I thought the monitor was elevated more than that but the pix at KLOV confirm that's how they were. Unless there are other versions of the cab that are not pictured on KLOV.

 

http://www.klov.com/...hp?game_id=7541

 

I remember playing this in 1979 at a traveling carnival and the screen was the same elevation as the one I played at Funspot this summer shown above.

[Gabriel]

None of these are really rare, but they don't seem to come up too much in talk about classic games.

 

Krull = I used to play this all the time at the local 7-11.

 

Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator = This game was like a gift from god for me. I was a huge Star Trek nut. I still kick myself for passing up the opportunity to buy a sit down version of this for a little over $100.

 

Mad Planets = A Safeway grocery store had this game and I would make the pilgrammage to play it at least once a week. I had all the high scores on it. I really miss this one, because MAME can't do it justice. It's a special controller game.

 

Make Trax = I think that was the game's name. You played a paintbrush and had to paint a maze. I only ever saw it at a local Texaco. I didn't play it all that much, but it was fun once in a while when I was burnt out on the place's other two games. (Phoenix and "Puck-Man")

 

Space Encounter = This was the first arcade game I fell in love with. You flew a TIE Fighter down a trench and shot at Y wings and X wings. It also had a really cool cabinet which evoked the feel of the hallway on the Tantive IV from Star Wars. The local 7-11 had it, and my parents grounded me to keep me from playing it.

 

Eliminator = They had several cocktails of this at Six Flags over Texas one year when I went. All of them were broken. I've never played the actual arcade game (outside of Sega Genesis Collection), but I've at least seen it.

 

Mouse Trap = Most of my friends never saw a Mouse Trap arcade machine, but I managed to enjoy one at Six Flags Over Texas on the same trip I saw Eliminator.

 

Some shooter I don't remember the name of = This is no help, but when I worked at a chicken place and didn't get off work until really late, I used to stop at a convenience store which had this neat little Galaga style shooter. I played it a lot, but I never paid any attention to the name of it. All I remember is that I played it in the summer of 1989. The copyright date was 1985, and it looked about as advanced as a 1982 or so game. Some people have suggested it's Galpus, but that doesn't look much of anything like what I remember. I've scoured KLOV from 1980 to 1989 and haven't found out what it was.

 

Venture = Like Mouse Trap, most of my friends had never seen one. When I was in Houston back in 1993 or so, I stopped in a little fast food shop in a mall there. They had a Venture machine, but it was broken. I seem to recall it had the Mouse Trap maze etched in the screen. Did those two games share hardware?

 

F-15 Strike Eagle II= On the same Houston trip, I encountered an arcade cabinet running the F-15 Strike Eagle II computer game.

[retrorussell]

Mouse Trap = Most of my friends never saw a Mouse Trap arcade machine, but I managed to enjoy one at Six Flags Over Texas on the same trip I saw Eliminator.

I think they had the same hardware, along with Fax, Hard Hat, and a few others with the black background seen during the game. Also, the long boot-up time was common amongst these (but REALLY long for Fax). I love Mouse Trap.